THE IMPACT OF STAKEHOLDER INTERACTIONS ON THE SUPPLY CHAIN RISKS OF MEGAPROJECTS IN AFRICA

THE RELATIONSHIP OF NETWORK TIE AND BREAKTHROUGH INNOVATION: IMPLICATIONS OF STRONG AND WEAK TIE POSITION

In this volume, both qualitative and quantitative scholars describe their findings on the networks of migrants and their descendants and explore the content of their social ties for educational and labor market success in seven European countries. Some contributions cover decades of work in this field, making this one of most comprehensive books on this topic, both theoretically and empirically. Almost without exception, the authors, although describing various ethnic groups, different geographical and professional contexts and different time periods, are critical of a number of the main arguments about the networks of migrants developed in the field of migration studies. Central in their critique is the question about the importance of co-ethnic or inter-ethnic ties and networks, and their importance to enter the labor market and move up. In the field of migration studies, concepts like integration and assimilation have greatly influenced the thinking of its scholars. The idea that newcomers only become fully integrated in a society when they gain a similar economic position and are in contact with people without migration background, or, in other words, become part of the mainstream, has been a strong and dominant view in our field (Alba & Nee, 2003; Alba, 2009; Portes & Rumbaut, 2001; Portes & Zhou, 1993). People who largely interact with co-ethnics and or work in labor market sectors that are dominated by co-ethnics (ethnic niches) are usually seen as not (yet) fully integrated into their new society. And when this also translates to the native-born children (so-called ‘second generation decline’), this is seen as problematic (Ganz, 1992). In this broader framework on integration and assimilation, Granovetter’s (1973) idea of strong and weak ties has entered the field of migration studies. Lang and Schneider, in this volume, rightly state that it is questionable whether the idea of strong ties – for co-ethnics – and weak ties – for ties with people without migration background – was originally intended by Granovetter to be used in this way. But what is clear, however, is that this idea fitted perfectly with broader theories on integration and assimilation. The importance for newly arrived migrants of strong co-ethnic ties in ethnic networks is generally considered one of the starting pieces of the puzzle laying out the process of assimilation in its first phase. The idea of weak ties, also in its symbolic emphasis on ‘weak’, perfectly suited the still scarce and superficial contacts with people of native descent in the early stages of the assimilation process. Since the concept of weak and strong ties fitted so well with the dominant theories about integration and assimilation (classical, neo and new assimilation), much of what was happening with migrants, and even their descendants, in the labor market was seen through, what many would call, an ethnic lens (Crul, 2016; Dahinden, 2016; Wimmer, 2013). Migrants gained a first foothold in the labor market through strong co-ethnic ties and were slowly moving up through their weak ties, making use of information and resources of people of native descent with whom they had only superficial contact. The idea of strong ties also resonated with the notion that their relations with co-ethnics were more meaningful and profound. There was also a dark side to strong ties. Under some conditions, because of the limited information and resources in the co-ethnic network, for some the strong ties could lead to an ethnic mobility trap.

Communication Ties Across the National Network of Local Health Departments

1. IntroductionThis study is an analysis of process of successful diversification from perspective of (Granovetter, 1973).Despite increasing pessimism about competitiveness of Japanese machinery industry, which has played a leading role in Japanese economic growth, there is growing interest in diversification into medical industry, which is seen as a next-generation source of growth. This study takes example of a firm that successfully diversified from automotive industry into medical equipment industry, and from perspective of ties, it observes process of how company succeeded in this diversification effort over a moderately long period.Ties can be classified into and (Granovetter, 1973). There are well-known analyses of effectiveness of strong ties in automotive industry. Strong ties between automobile manufacturers and their suppliers have contributed to competitive advantage of Japan's auto industry (Clark & Fujimoto, 1991; Fujimoto, 1997). At same time, effectiveness of weak ties in acquiring useful new information is also well known (Granovetter, 1974). This aspect is known as the strength of weak (Granovetter, 1973). Strong ties promote incremental innovation, such as quality improvements and finely tuned responses to delicate needs, while weak ties tend to promote radical innovation through new information and revolutionary ideas (Wakabayashi, 2009). Weak ties can thus be useful in diversification in that they bring about new information and raise potential for entry into new markets.According to prior research that analyzed relationship between ties and management performance, it is not enough for a firm to have only strong ties or only weak ties. Moreover, firms having a proper balance of both have best performance (Uzzi, 1996, 1997; Uzzi & Gillespie, 1999). These studies suggest that both strong and weak ties are necessary for diversified companies to generate good performance.However, little research has been done on how firms can form weak ties and leverage them in diversification process, as well as at what point do strong ties become necessary.2. MethodThe analytical method used in this study is a single case study that examines process of how a company achieved diversification and what kind of ties were formed in doing so. It has been pointed out that Granovetter's (1973) definitions of strong and weak ties are ambiguous and that there are some logical leaps on his theoretical development (Takahashi & Inamizu, 2014). This study refers to Granovetter (1973) in defining ties as being based on the amount of spent in relationships and engaged in the reciprocal services, with lots of time spent indicating strong ties and little time spent indicating weak ties.This study focuses on following two points. First, how did a company that had grown in automotive industry, where strong ties were prevalent, form weak ties?Second, were both weak ties and strong ties necessary for successful diversification? At what point did strong ties become necessary? How did strength and role of these ties change over time?The analysis in this study focuses on Tokai Buhin Kogyo Co. Ltd. (hereinafter, Tokai Buhin), a rare example of successful diversification among small- and medium-sized parts manufacturers. The firm was founded in Shizuoka Prefecture in 1947 as a manufacturer of screws and developed into a screw manufacturer for automobiles. However, company entered medical equipment industry in 2003 because it was concerned about having over-reliance on automobiles.Data for this analysis was gathered from industry publications and newspapers, as well as through interviews with Nobuyuki Morita, company's president, Mitsuteru Hirano, its factory director, and Katsunori Ueda, director of Pharma Valley Center, an organization that promotes medical industry in Shizuoka Prefecture. …

ABSTRACTSupply chain disruption causes tremendous loss to supply chains and global businesses. Organizational structure and operational features of supply chain networks, therefore, constitute a major portion of research for coping with supply chain disruption risk. This article first discusses the theoretical foundation, analyses the strength theory of strong and weak ties and the collaborative theory of strong and weak ties. Also, research methods are explicated; the scale-free networks and the theory of strong ties are integrated; the features of supply chain networks are considered from single statistical parameters and comprehensive analyses. Next, we provide numeric simulation of the properties of supply chain networks, verifying the accuracy of parameter analyses of single statistics and comprehensive analyses. Ultimately, when coping with supply chain disruption risk, each node enterprise of supply chain network is supposed to deploy the characteristics of scale-free networks to systematically manage existing weak ties, weak ties newly introduced, existing strong ties and strong ties newly introduced. This study is conducive to node enterprises of supply chains to recognize and apply the scale-free networks and the strength theory of ties to analyze the properties of supply chain networks, and to improve the capacity to cope with disruption risk.

Information flow through strong and weak ties in intraorganizational social networks

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate how focal firms in supply networks manage weak and strong ties for exploration and exploitation innovation in mature industries. In doing so, the paper extends the understanding of how focal firms manage open innovation (OI).Design/methodology/approachThe empirical base is a multiple case study conducted on three companies operating in mature industries in Europe.FindingsFindings of this study reveal, analyze and explain a diverse set of OI practices in the supply networks of mature industries in which the focal firms integrate strong and weak supply ties to enhance innovation outcomes. This study provides a fine-grained view of the benefits of the additive and interactive effects of strong and weak ties in OI. More specifically, the analysis reveals an enhancing role of strong supply ties in exploration, which previously was associated solely with weak ties. Moreover, this study sheds light on the dominant and orchestrating roles of focal firms.Practical implicationsThe findings provide insights to enhance OI practices beyond the limited role of the weak ties of the supply network and highlight the essential role of the strong supply ties in mature industries.Originality/valueWhile previous studies have associated exploration with weak ties, findings of this study reveal that exploration-oriented activities in mature industries also extend to strong ties. In the strong ties of mature industries, this study finds there is not only the exploitation of existing knowledge but also the reconfiguration and innovation of products.

PurposeAs an effective mode to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) raise working capital, supply chain finance has recently gained extensive attention. The purpose of this paper is to explore the intrinsic mechanism of how both weak and strong ties in the supply chain network impact the supply chain financing performance (SCFP) of SMEs from the perspective of the supply chain network.Design/methodology/approachBased on the extended resource-based perspective, this paper proposes a theoretical model to explain the mode in which strong ties and weak ties of SMEs in the supply chain network influence SCFP through both physical distribution flexibility and demand management flexibility. Based on data from 182 manufacturing firms in China, this paper uses multiple regression analysis to test hypotheses.FindingsThe results of this paper indicate that weak ties improve SCFP more effectively than strong ties. Furthermore, both physical distribution flexibility and demand management flexibility exert different mediating roles either between strong ties and SCFP or between weak ties and SCFP. Moreover, the effect of physical distribution flexibility and demand management flexibility on SCFP of SMEs is not reinforced.Originality/valueThis paper highlights the importance to expand supply chain finance research from the perspective of the supply chain network. In particular, this paper explores the poorly understood mediating effect both physical distribution flexibility and demand management flexibility exert on the relationship between network ties and the SCFP of SMEs.

PurposeThis paper examines how weak ties and strong ties in the supply chain network influence the financing performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through the mediation of information sharing and innovation capability.Design/methodology/approachQuestionnaires were administered to 208 financial managers responsible for supply chain finance in SMEs in China. Data analysis techniques used included multiple regression analysis and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis.FindingsThe authors found that weak ties had a more substantial impact on the financing performance of SMEs than strong ties did. Information sharing and innovation capability played a mediating role between weak and strong ties and the financing performance of SMEs. In addition, information sharing and innovation capability complement each other and jointly influence the financing performance of SMEs.Practical implicationsSMEs are suggested to actively embed themselves in the supply chain network to increase financing opportunities and reduce financing costs. The authors also recommend SMEs to enhance the level of their information sharing in the supply chain network and take advantage of their network ties to access and adopt new technology from other organisations and conduct collaborative innovation with partner institutions.Originality/valueThe paper extends the authors’ understanding of supply chain finance by exploring the intrinsic mechanism of how various constructs (weak ties, strong ties, information sharing and innovation capability) in the supply chain network have an impact on the financing performance of SMEs. In particular, the authors explore the under-researched mediating effect of information sharing and innovation capability on the relationship between network ties and the financing performance of SMEs.

IntroductionGlobal supply chain management is exposed to a variety of risks such as demand fluctuations, exchange-rate fluctuations, price fluctuations, supply disruption, and supply delays.2 In addition, because of business activities and growth, management often has created conflicts among risks. Thus, business firms must develop mitigation strategies that effectively manage these risks in the supply chain.3 Supply chain risk management (SCRM) takes a proactive approach to the development of mitigation strategies for supply chain risks, giving important strategic alternatives and insights while overcoming challenges presented by the information and knowledge age.4The purpose of this paper is threefold: 1) to identify, assess, and prioritize supply chain risks; 2) to use the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) technique to support the strategic planning in supply chain management (SCM) decision-making; and 3) to provide business decision makers with a model to identify risk mitigation strategies. Using a business firm (BF) in the Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC), the study focuses on exploring supply chain risks' characteristics in order to implement risk mitigation strategies that will improve the BF's and the KIC's decision-making planning process and managerial policy.5 The study will suggest risk mitigation strategies that will enable the BF to respond to innovation and new growth, while reinforcing overall ongoing business planning strategies to meet defined requirements in the KIC business setting.Supply Chain Risk ManagementSupply chain management (SCM) is defined as an integrated business philosophy for managing information, materials, and monetary flows among different facilities, suppliers, customers, and logistic levels. SCM includes both internal customers, such as all cross-functional decision-makers within an organization that have direct and/or indirect impact, and external customers such as suppliers, distributors, transporters, warehouses, retailers, and even end users. Because of the many qualitative and quantitative factors which must be included in SCM, planning is a complicated decision-making problem in business.6 Given the complexity of SCM, especially in cross-border supply chains, many studies have applied different business methodologies to real world situations.7Supply chain risk is defined as any risk associated with the flow of materials, information, and monetary transaction in a supply chain process. An effective supply chain risk management (SCRM) strategy embeds risk management into all supply chain functions, from inbound to outbound supply chain streams. Conventional risk management identifies and evaluates the various supply chain risk factors and their potential effects in areas such as purchasing and procurement, manufacturing and production, resources and real estate, outsourcing, logistics and warehousing, inventory, and legal matters. Risk factors can be identified in terms of sources, places, and relationships, or from a managerial function perspective, such as financial risk, operational risk, human resources risk, and information risk.8 Table 1 on page 36 presents categories and drivers of supply chain risks.A more comprehensive SCRM strategy may need proactive participants in the overall SCM planning processes.9 Although managing supply chain risk is a primary business activity, an even more important activity is the identification of proper risk mitigation strategies that will make the business more sustainable and profitable. By identifying risks and developing a pertinent strategy in a supply chain, business firms can align risks to the related strategies. In manufacturing-business firms, four major strategies are cost, quality, delivery, and flexibility.The existence of numerous risk factors makes supply chain decision-making more difficult to plan and implement. It is complicated because many tangible and intangible risk factors must be included in the decision-making process of a supply chain planning process. …

1. IntroductionMany of us have heard the phrase it's not what you know but who you know. While this may not be strictly true, approximately one half of workers in the United States do find employment through friends, relatives, and other social contacts (Granovetter 1995). Further, in a seminal paper, Granovetter (1973) argues that, for the purpose of finding jobs, it is acquaintances, not close friends, who are most important in helping individuals find employment. He claims that friends whom one knows well are likely to be close in social space. Close friends know one's other close friends and tend to have social networks similar to each other. Thus, any information held by a given close friend may be obtained from other close friends as well; the job information of close friends is often redundant. In contrast, acquaintances tend to have less similar social networks and know different people from one's close friends. Granovetter argued that acquaintances also are more likely to have different information about available jobs, which makes them valuable job contacts. Granovetter labeled acquaintances as weak ties as opposed to close friends, who are known as strong ties.In this article, I am defining weak and strong ties as Granovetter (1983) did. Weak ties are acquaintances and strong ties are close friends. The important point of these definitions is the idea that, on average, acquaintances are less likely to know one's other friends than strong ties. On average, the social network of strong ties has more overlap than the social network of weak ties. As I will explain in more detail below, the lack of overlap of acquaintances implies that a social network with more weak ties will be larger (will have more range) than a social network with fewer weak ties.Since Granovetter's article, much work has been done by other scholars to validate the importance of weak ties in labor markets by answering two questions: First, researchers asked whether weak ties are a common source of finding employment. These studies have been successful in demonstrating that weak ties are indeed an important source of finding employment. For instance, in Granovetter (1973), of the people finding jobs through referral sources (such as friends, family, and other personal contacts), 27.8% use weak ties, 16.7% use strong ties, and the majority, 55.6%, use ties of moderate strength in between weak and strong. Others have replicated the finding that weak ties are a common means of finding employment.1 In summary, this line of research has demonstrated that, as Granovetter claimed, weak ties do play an important role in matching workers and jobs. Second, because weak ties appear to be important in locating jobs, researchers have asked if the use of weak ties as a job-finding method increases income (Bridges and Villemez 1986; Marsden and Hurlbert 1988; Wegener 1991). The findings of these studies suggest that there is little evidence of a relationship between weak ties and income. (Note that the hypothesized link between weak ties and income was not a part of Granovetter's hypothesis, as he makes clear in Granovetter [1983].)The present article can be seen as an extension to this second line of questioning. In this article, I use an example to show that previous methods used to measure the effect of weak ties on income will underestimate the effect, if it exists. I then provide a new method of estimating the effect of weak ties on income that directly considers the social network of individuals. Granovetter's idea that weak ties are more likely to provide novel information rests on the idea that weak ties are less likely to overlap than strong ties, on average. In other words, weak ties know a smaller fraction of one's other friends compared with strong ties, on average. I use this idea to show that less overlap in friendships increases the range of an individual's social network. …

Though word-of-mouth (w-o-m) communications is a pervasive and intriguing phenomenon, little is known on its underlying process of personal communications. Moreover as marketers are getting more interested in harnessing the power of w-o-m, for e-business and other net related activities, the effects of the different communications types on macro level marketing is becoming critical. In particular we are interested in the breakdown of the personal communication between closer and stronger communications that are within an individual's own personal group (strong ties) and weaker and less personal communications that an individual makes with a wide set of other acquaintances and colleagues (weak ties). We use a technique borrowed from Complex Systems Analysis called stochastic cellular automata in order to generate data and analyze the results so that answers to our main research issues could be ascertained. The following summarizes the impact of strong and weak ties on the speed of acceptance of a new product: ••The influence of weak ties is at least as strong as the influence of strong ties. Despite the relative inferiority of the weak tie parameter in the model's assumptions, their effect approximates or exceeds that of strong ties, in all stages of the product life cycle. ••External marketing efforts (e.g., advertising) are effective. However, beyond a relatively early stage of the growth cycle of the new product, their efficacy quickly diminishes and strong and weak ties become the main forces propelling growth. The results clearly indicate that information dissemination is dominated by both weak and strong w-o-m, rather than by advertising. ••The effect of strong ties diminishes as personal network size decreases. Market attributes were also found to mediate the effects of weak and strong ties. When personal networks are small, weak ties were found to have a stronger impact on information dissemination than strong ties.

Background: This study examines the degree to which cognitive supply chain management (CSCM) indirectly enhances supply chain risk management (SCRM), addressing the lack of specific empirical research concerning the underlying mechanisms of this relationship. Specifically, this study tests the CSCM-SCRM relationship using the mediating roles of supply chain forecasting (SCF), supply chain synchronization (SCS), and supply chain transparency (SCT). Methods: For this quantitative research, a survey was conducted among 287 respondents of pharmaceutical companies operating in Saudi Arabia. Convenience sampling was conducted, and the collected data were then analyzed via partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) through SmartPLS 4 software. The dynamic capabilities theory (DCT) and information processing theory (IPT) were integrated to develop the conceptual framework of this study. Results: The findings indicate that CSCM does not exert a direct impact on SCRM. Instead, CSCM significantly enhances SCF, SCS, and SCT. Among these, both SCF and SCT have a direct positive impact on SCRM and act as significant mediators in the CSCM–SCRM relationship. In contrast, SCS neither directly impacts SCRM nor plays a mediating role in this relationship. Based on this study, the positive outcomes of CSCM on SCRM come about via SCF and SCT rather than SCS. Conclusions: This study contributes to the literature by empirically validating a model that integrates CSCM, SCF, SCS, SCT, and SCRM in the context of Saudi pharmaceutical companies. It further contributes to the pharmaceutical practitioners by establishing that CSCM exerts an indirect positive effect on SCRM via information-intensive capabilities.

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are a vital component in economic development and bring benefits to the country as they provide employment, increase income, and foster economic growth. However, SMEs have many shortcomings including small size, short capital, and reliance on support from the government. In addition, SMEs are usually companies that are less structured, with small management group, inadequately organised, as well as having informal risk management structure. This study argues for the benefit of adopting SCRM in Malaysian SME. Supply chain risk management (SCRM) focuses on supply chain risk phenomena and provides models for the analysis of several types of supply chain risks that occur in both supply and demand sides of the supply chains. The purpose of SCRM is to recognise the potential supply chain uncertainties and prevent the uncertainties with appropriate action. SCRM is made of four basic categories; risk sources, risk consequences, risk drivers, and risk mitigation strategies. This study focuses on risk mitigation strategies that should be implemented by SME to overcome challenges that they faced. The main problem is that there is lack of knowledge in the application of SCM, especially SCRM in the context of SMEs. In fact, there are still plenty of companies that have not establish a structured supply chain risk management and mitigation system and unaware of supply chain disruption risk management. Therefore, this study seeks to examine risk mitigation strategies and their effect on the company’s performance in Malaysian SME’s. Data was collected through survey questionnaire and the respondents consist of SMEs located in Malaysia. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS and findings indicate that there is significant relationship between risk mitigation strategies adopted by the SMEs and their company performance. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2015.v4n1s2p151

Diversity of strong and weak ties and loneliness in older adults